


wait for summertime (this house is falling apart)

by fourteentimes



Series: still turning out [1]
Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, one sided Tenshouin Eichi/Tsukinaga Leo, shinigami au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25692721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourteentimes/pseuds/fourteentimes
Summary: There is a before Leo, and there will be an after Leo, but for now, there is simply just Leo. Just Leo, filling Ritsu’s senses, pulling him along to his rhythm.(or: Ritsu makes for a terrible shinigami when faced with one (1) Tsukinaga Leo.)
Relationships: Sakuma Ritsu/Tsukinaga Leo
Series: still turning out [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870684
Comments: 12
Kudos: 37





	wait for summertime (this house is falling apart)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ritsuizuleo (nightfullofstars)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfullofstars/gifts).



> happy birthday leo tsukinaga??? title is from anna sun by walk the moon.
> 
> written for the prompt ritsuleo & shinigami au

Leo is loved by Death. 

How could he not be, Ritsu thinks, watching the way he flutters around people, drawing smiles and affection and love to him. How could Death not want to keep this, he wonders, sitting in the eaves as he listens to Leo’s compositions, swaying to the beat and humming along later as he collects the souls of the old and weary and dead. 

How indeed. 

An order is an order, Death reminds him incessantly, on days when he drags his feet trailing behind Leo, slipping out of view from his sharp gaze and sharper smile. In the rustling of the trees and whispers on the wind, he reminds him. 

Death will always covet what he can’t have. 

(Happiness. Joy. Wit. Love, maybe.)

Ritsu is but his faithful servant. 

\-- 

Ritsu doesn’t mean to linger. He doesn’t mean to reach out and let his fingertips graze at the ends of his hair. He doesn’t mean to let Leo catch him. 

“If you want something, it’s easier to ask, don’t you think?” 

“What makes you say that?” 

“Wahaha, and usually you’re supposed to say sorry for stalking someone too!” Leo’s laugh settles in Ritsu’s ribs (or where his ribs would be if he had any) like a warm cat, curling under his breast and filling him with something he can’t quite identify. 

(But it’s solid and heady and makes him just a little bit achy.) 

“Then sorry, I guess, if you want me to say it.” 

Letting himself be seen is a bad idea. 

Talking to Leo is worse. 

“That didn’t sound very sincere, but it’s fine because I used you too!” 

Ritsu can’t quite bring himself to care. 

“Ooh? I haven’t heard that one before.” Ritsu rests his chin in his hand. His half-lidded expression reads boredom or maybe amusement, carefully honed from centuries of using it on Death, but Leo doesn’t even seem to notice. That’s okay. He doesn’t have to. He can just be sparkly and passionate and babble on while Ritsu commits to memory how quick his expression changes and how delicate his hands look when he throws them around and how brilliant his hair looks caught in the sun like this. “How so?” 

“I used you as my inspiration~” 

"You gonna tell me what for? I don't like guessing much~" 

Leo grins like this is what he's been waiting for. He grins sharp and manic, grabbing Ritsu's hand and shoving papers into them before he can stop him. 

"It's for you! These are all for you!"

And Ritsu thinks he wouldn’t mind hours listening to Leo speak with that sing-song cadence of his. 

\--

There is a before Leo, and there will be an after Leo, but for now, there is simply just Leo. Just Leo, filling Ritsu’s senses, pulling him along to his rhythm. 

(Making him wish there was something in his chest besides this expansive, lonely _emptiness_.) 

Leo calling out to him every chance he gets, dragging him out into the sun, even when Ritsu tries and tries and tries to hide himself away. 

(Leo always finds him, though, and he feels light for the rest of the day.) 

Leo, carefree and happy as they spin around the room. Waltzing, he says. Messy, Ritsu says, as he narrowly tugs Leo out of sight of the next Reaper Death has sent for his soul.

And the one after that, when Ritsu tugs him out of the way of the car careening too fast down the street on their way to Leo's concert. 

And again and again and again.

Once is an accident. Twice is suspicious. More is inexcusable, but Ritsu doesn't know if he really cares.

\--

"Oh, dear Ritsu," Death says, as he curls a bone-white finger around a lock of Ritsu's hair, "all things die. One way or another, all things die."

And if he still had blood, he knows it would be freezing in his chest.

\-- 

"You have to run," Ritsu says. His fingers shake as he scribbles an address down on some kind of paper ("My masterpiece, Rittsu!"), as he shoves it into Leo's hands, ignoring the squawk of indignation. "You have to go. Now."

"Why, who says?" Normally, Leo pouting is cute, and Ritsu wants to eat him up. 

Now, he's half-thinking about how lovely human duct tape is. 

"I say," Ritsu says flatly. He stuffs more papers into Leo's bag, plucking some money from his between-space and throwing that in too. Clothes. Food, humans need food, right? 

"Rittsu." 

Leo's hand on his is gentle, but it doesn't stop the tremors. 

Panic. 

He's panicking. 

"Rittsu, tell me, we can work it out together," Leo says quietly. Ritsu lets himself close his eyes and relax into his touch for all of a moment before thunder cracks impossibly loud. 

No time. 

There's no time. 

"Find him, okay?" Ritsu presses the bag, presses the address into Leo's hands as he pushes him out into the torrential rain. "Find him, he'll keep you safe." 

Leo's gaze pierces him somewhere deep. He's looking for a lie, for an answer, but Ritsu can only shake his head. 

"Later. Go." He won't get the chance to explain. Leo knows he's lying. 

Leo ducks in for a kiss, and they're both soaking wet in the storm, and Ritsu wishes this moment could stretch out forever and ever and ever.

"Come find me soon," Leo says. 

_I love you._

"Be safe," Ritsu says.

_I love you too._

\--

"Did you love him?" 

Ritsu laughs, and it's bitter and horrible and scratches in his chest. 

"Did you?" he says blithely. Ritsu looks up at the sky, at the gray storm clouds swirling overhead. At Eichi, expression still placid even while the wind whips into a frenzy. He can't help but laugh again. Eichi never was one to wear his heart on his sleeve, but no matter how hard he tried, even he couldn't control the rest of the world. 

"Maybe if you were honest, I wouldn't mind having you back," Eichi says. He settles in the dirt next to Ritsu's decaying form, peeling off the strips of skin and sinew that blackens and withers away. "You _are_ my favorite after all."

"Anija was right about you." Ritsu can't feel his chest anymore. 

Eichi's expression sours. "Is that where you've hidden him, then? How distasteful."

"Just admit you lost this one," Ritsu says. His voice is getting thin. 

"All things die, dear Ritsu. Even you." 

"You should try it some time." Ritsu closes his eyes. Eichi strokes his hair softly. 

"I'll miss you, I think." 

\--

Once upon a time, there was a boy who was afraid to die. 

Not in so many words, of course. Admitting it would be a weakness. 

There was always another thing he wanted to see, wanted to do. 

Ritsu had let himself get swept up in his fervor, and when he reached a hand out to Ritsu, when he asked Ritsu to come with him, when Ritsu looked back on his world that he hated so much and seethed, Ritsu said yes. 

\--

All things die. 

(But no one said that had to last forever.)

\--

"Ah, Rittsu, Rittsu!"

Ritsu looks up. The voice is familiar, like something he might have dreamt. 

"Who're you?" 

"Haha, funny! That's usually my line, you know!" The boy that squeezes in next to him on his seat is warm. His hair is like fire, and his eyes are like jewels, and Ritsu thinks he might want to make him his. "Ah, but Rei said you might forget!" 

"Forget what?" 

"Me, but that's fine! You can still play piano, right? I want you to try these for me!" Papers. Papers with music notes. There are so many, and the boy keeps pulling them out. From where, Ritsu isn't sure. 

"Why?" 

The boy finally stops, looking sheepishly down at his music. "I wrote them for you. It's a lot, right? I was waiting awhile, I guess!" 

_I missed you,_ he doesn't say, but Ritsu thinks he hears all the same. 

Why does that make his heart lurch in his chest? Why does that make him gather it all up and take this boy's hand? 

They end up at the baby grand Rei gave him, a gift. One he didn't understand, doesn't remember exactly. One he traced his fingers over, feeling something like electricity race through him when he pressed an ivory key for the first time. 

Something guides his fingers. He places them on the keys as he scans the sheets, and something pulls him along. Something tells him to play. 

\--

_Softly, like a summer day, like light through trees and sweet laughter._

_Warmly, like kisses hello and kisses goodbye and every kiss in-between._

_Ardently, feverishly, building till it hits that fever pitch, till it crests and breaks and--_

_Lonely. Longingly. Achingly._

\--

There are tears on his cheeks when he finishes. 

He's crying, he realizes distantly. 

_Leo._

The name feels at once foreign and comforting. 

Ritsu's head aches. His heart aches. 

"I'm here." The boy-- _Leo, Leo, it's_ Leo--wraps him in his arms. "I'm here, Rittsu."

"Leo," he whispers because if he's any louder, this might just all fall apart. (Or he might.) 

(He may still, when Leo strokes his hair and says it's all right, they'll be all right, they'll be safe now, they're safe now.) 

**Author's Note:**

> you can follow my writing twitter [@satiIIquinart](https://twitter.com/satiIIquinart) for updates!


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